Custom Designed & Made Rolling Library Ladders

We regularly receive commissions to design and make library ladders of various styles, from hook-on ladders to rolling, retractable ladders and many variations in between.

This particular project is a great example of the kind of collaboration clients can expect to receive from Andrew Nebbett Designs, in order to achieve exactly the right solution for the space and to do it beautifully (even if we do say so ourselves)!

We were contacted by a world-renowned company of cabinet makers, to assist with a particular project for which two rooms required library ladders. The study and sitting room of a very fine, period property in central London was being entirely renovated and within these two rooms, floor-to-ceiling cabinets were to be installed. As with many period properties, ceiling heights can be great and this was no exception!

There were many aspects which had to be taken into account;

– from the need to design special brackets to allow the ladder rail to be supported by the book-shelves as well as the vertical divisions in between.

– there was also a need to ensure the rolling ladder feet would roll from left to right at a particular point on the floor to avoid any contact with the in-set carpet in the parquet flooring.

– the ladders themselves had to be just the right height and angle to enable the user to reach to the upper shelves, but it was also necessary to ensure the ladders and their rails wouldn’t impact the hidden doors built within the bookcases.

– there was also the small matter of the bookcase and wall-panelling mouldings which had an impact on the distances away from the wall that the ladder rail had to be mounted.

All in all, there were many elements which all had to be allowed for!

(Click on the images below…)

All the aspects above and many more were the result of lots of talking, listening, thinking and designing, all of which was then repeated! Communication really is the most important aspect of our client relationships. This project illustrates the entire spectrum of the design and production process, from the initial request for ladders through the discussion of first ideas, then revised ideas and final ideas and then to the installation of the finished product.

As a result of this communication process the client understood exactly what would be produced a long time before installation.

The whole team were involved and the end solution is something we are all immensely proud of.